The Book with no name - part 10

The sun was decreasing over the meadow, leaving a trail of fire in the sky. Standing on top of a hill, Jace and Chouette were looking over the others, down in the field. Around noon, they had found this place. It was higher placed in the mountains, surrounded by forest and far from any major stream of water. The hot sun of the day had dried the land and brought nice warmth. Once they had reached this place, they had decided to settle for the rest of the day, allowing the wounded black mare to rest. Eros was constantly wandering around, never standing still. Jace was not happy about him. He was constantly feeling the urge, down in his chest, to chase him away. Especially since he spent all the morning charming Chouette. Heaven has been taking care of Engine, trying all he could to grow medicinal plants. Phala was fooling around, playing with bunnies and birds. Chouette scratched him on the shoulder.

“You seem lost in your thoughts. What’s the matter?” She asked, looking down on their herd.

“I'm worried, Chouette. There is something wrong going on here, I feel it in every fibre of my body. And with the predators, it’s not safe to keep a foal and a wounded horse in an open field.” He answered in a low and thoughtful voice.

“This place is safe Jace, at least for now. We'll leave as soon as Engine can travel and I'm sure we'll find out what’s going on. The others have been here for months! And they're still ok … We will be too.”

He snorted. She was always right and she had this way of calming him. He shook his neck, chasing the immobility away.

“Let’s go join the others for the night” He decided.

They both walked back down the hill, meeting the others in the middle of the meadow. The sun was now hidden behind the hill, leaving the beginning of the starry dark sky of the night. Phala, startled by the return of the two leads, trotted back to Heaven to get ready to sleep. Eros came closer too, but decided he didn't want to sleep so he took the role of vigil. Chouette settled down to sleep as Jace was watching over them with one eye. He wouldn't let their security in the hooves of this stallion …

The morning came quickly and the clouds covering the sun made it hard for the herd to wake up. But once everyone was awake and had grazed a bit, they were once again on their way, seeing as Engine was much better. Phala was constantly winning that he was tired of always walking, that he would have preferred to stay in the barn with the others. But Heaven was trying to make him smile but joking and fooling. Eros was following the group, leaving them now and then to wander a bit around. Chouette was flying over the trees each time she was able to take off and land in order to lead them. Around 11am, she spotted a huge black mass rising from the ground, in the distance. She couldn't tell what it was, but Jace decided they needed to investigate. Close to 1pm, they reached an area of the forest that was different. They couldn't see the black thing yet from the ground, and Chouette couldn't take off as the trees were too dense. The ambience was totally different here. Where they had been accompanied by birds and critters all the way, there was now no more sounds. No birds around, not even wind in the leaves. The trees were also much duller, almost grey and sick looking. What was even more worrying is that there was a clear line where everything was changing. Like one tree was ok and the tree beside it was weird. Like it was delimiting a zone. They stopped there.

“We should circle around, see if we can find anything … this place doesn't look safe and until we know more about it, we're not going in.” Jace declared.

“Oh Come On! There is something in there and you know it. We need to go check it out!” Eros replied.

“No. I’m final. We're not going in now.”

Jace snorted and raised his head, daring him to say something else. Eros pawed.

“Do as you wish.”

And he entered the zone without a look behind. Chouette was unhappy about that, but couldn't agree more with Jace. They would not get in there until they at least knew a bit more about this place. Snorting, she took the lead of the group and started the journey to explore the border of the zone. After a whole hour, they still didn't found anything interesting. Always the same look, always the same delimitation. The sun was already low and with the dense forest, it was already pretty dark. It was commonly decided that they would walk away from the zone in order to find a safe place to spend the night. They were about to leave when they heard a loud scream, coming from inside the zone.

“Eros” muttered Chouette.

She bolted toward the zone but was stopped by Jace who blocked her way, causing her to crash into his side. He didn't move.

“Don’t. Protect the others, I'll go in.” He said.

There was no way he was gonna let her get in alone, especially if there was danger. Surprisingly, Engine took a step forward and talked for the first time since they met her.

“I'll come too. I have the feeling I need to be with you if you enter there.”

Jace was about to reply, but time was running and they didn't had time. He nodded and they both entered the zone. The air was very dense and oppressing, like the atmosphere itself was trying to crush them into small pieces. They progressed slowly, avoiding dangerous sharp branched and fallen trunk. It really felt like they were walking towards nowhere. They were so focused Jace never noticed the mare’s satanic marking was glowing. In front of them, two horses appeared out of the fog covering everything around. Jace jumped, ready to fight, but the familiar face of Eros appeared, followed by Athena, the appaloosa mare from the other herd. What the hell was she doing here? He was about to ask when he noticed the stallion was badly wounded and the mare was just slightly better. He snorted in a mix of disgust and frustration. He told him not to come inside. He moved sideways to let the two horses pass and they all progressed back to the outside of the zone. The way out seemed to be much easier than the way in, being even much faster. Like the zone was pushing them out. Once out, Jace stopped to question Athena.

“What are you doing here?”

“I followed you from the distance. I knew Eros was gonna do something stupid and I'm not really associated with Kehelian.”

“And what happened in there?”

“I followed Eros from the distance again, and when I heard him scream, I rushed there. When I arrived, he was being attacked by a whole pack of wolves. I barely managed to scare them away.”

A whole pack of wolves, mm? Jace frowned. He remembered the first day they woke up, when they wandered in the wood, even before meeting Chouette, the same oppressing feeling they felt as in the zone. And the wolves that attacked them just after. Maybe they were close to the zone back then but just missed it. As he was lost in his thoughts, Chouette arrived, panicked by the state of the two horses.

“Jace! We need to do something for them.”

“The best we can do is to go back to the barn … I’m pretty sure you don't like the idea Jace, but it’s best for us and we need to inform the others about what happened here.” Athena said.

She was right. Jace was really not happy with the thought of going back there but it was the best solution. Plus, with the circling of the zone, they were close to the barn now. So they all took the road again, reaching the old farm in less than an hour.

Their return created lots of emotions in the herd. Rapsodie and Sweet came to tend to the wounded horses. Kumo immediately jumped forward, aiming for Engine throat, all teeth out. But she came crashing pretty hard on Heaven’s rock armor. For the first time since Jace met him, he was mad and ready to take a fight.

“You let her alone now, or you'll taste my rock a little more.” He stated in a cold voice.

The aggressive mare backed up, unhappy but not stupid enough to try her luck with him. While Kehelian was also obviously unhappy with this intruder bossing his herd, he didn't say anything and came to Jace instead.

“Why are you back here?” He asked on a severe tone.

“Obviously.” Jace replied, looking heavily at the wounded horses.

Kehelian looked back at the little group and snorted.

“What happened?”